Lorde cancels Israel concert after BDS pressure

Lorde. Photo by DavidEye/Wikipedia

DECEMBER 28, 2017 – New Zealand-born pop star Lorde cancelled her June 2018 show in Tel Aviv following pressure from the anti-Israel BDS movement. The musician’s cancellation was announced in a statement in which she said it was “the right decision at this time.”

The BDS movement cheered the cancellation, with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel thanking the artist on Twitter for “heeding appeals from your fans against Israel’s art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians.”

Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev called on Lorde to “be a pure heroine, like the title of your first album, a pure culture hero, free of any external – and if I may add, delusional – political considerations.”